


Storm Without Rain

by NoItsBecky_127



Category: MCSM, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: But still Minecraft, Characters ship each other, Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Endless pockets because screw physics, Everyone is lowkey dead inside, F/M, Female Jesse, How Do I Tag, I'm highkey an awful person, Luktra - Freeform, Minecraft: Story Mode, Modern Setting, Original Female Character - Freeform, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Petra is tol, Sad Backstories, Swearing, so much swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-04
Updated: 2016-12-17
Packaged: 2018-09-06 13:43:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8754313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoItsBecky_127/pseuds/NoItsBecky_127
Summary: "It's just..." Petra sighed, shaking her head. "Lukas, this entire thing is because some of us fucked up. Ellie and I shouldn't have made that deal. Axel shouldn't have stolen that potion. Ivor should have been more careful with the Wither--wait, fuck that, he shouldn't have spawned the notchdamn thing in the first place. I bet none of us meant for it to turn out this way--hell, even Ivor probably didn't mean for things to get this bad. As much as I hate him, I have a hard time believing that ANYONE would willingly destroy the world. But you know what? With this whole fucking world being destroyed horribly and quickly, our intentions don't matter--that is, if they ever did in the first place."





	1. Game Starts Here!

~~~~So, take the smallest town you can think of.

The everyone-knows-everyone kind of town.

You know the type. A town where they can have a sign stating the population, because it almost never changes. (This town doesn't, but it could.)

This is where our story begins-in the small town of Acacia Gardens.

Well, that's technically a lie.

In reality, our story begins just outside the town. You see, surrounding this town is a forest. In this forest, there is a cave.

This cave isn't fully underground. There's an opening to the surface, and torches light just about every area.

In the middle of this cave are two girls. They're sitting on separate beds that are poorly made.

One of the girls is around 5'11" and has shoulder-length flaming red hair that is completely natural, freckles, brown eyes, and possibly a genetic mutation that causes there to be almost no indication on her chest that she's a girl. She appears to be in her late teens.

That's Petra Johnson, one of the two inhabitants of this cave.

The other girl is around 6'3" and has a dark auburn ponytail that reaches just past her shoulders, green eyes, freckles, and possibly that same genetic mutation. She's holding a list written in a messy scrawl, and she looks to be a few years older than Petra.

That's Ellie Johnson, the other inhabitant of the cave.

This is where our story begins.

Ellie read over the list she was holding. "Okay, so for today, our only deal is that creepy dude with the beard who wanted the wither skull. Ivor, I think. The one who almost turned us down when he found out you're barely out of high school."

Petra rolled her eyes. "Oh, yeah. Remind me again why we didn't just punch him in the face and walk away?"

"Because he's giving us a diamond, so we can't afford to be rude, even if he's an asshole who thinks kids are automatically bad at stuff like this." Ellie reminded her.

"The things we do for money…"

"Yeah, it really is ridiculous, isn't it? But in any case, we've got the skull, so I guess we should just get things in advance."

"Yeah, that sounds like the best idea. Well, that and checking on the building competition to make sure the Ocelots and Jesse's group don't fucking murder each other."

"Yeah, go ahead, just leave me to do the deals alone." Ellie said bitterly.

"Oh, stop." Petra scoffed. "It's not that hard, and the building competition isn't too far. Remember? They're holding Endercon nearby this year. Do the easy ones while I'm abandoning you."

Ellie did a fake pout.

"Stop trying to make me pity you; it's not happening."

"Fine."

The two girls could've went on talking until their semi-argument turned into banter-they'd done it before-but there were deals to do. They were all pretty average. Wood. Seeds. Flowers. Cobblestone. Stuff like that. Some days Petra didn't understand why people got stuff from them when they could get it from a store. Maybe because they could choose the price. Maybe because in their minuscule town, not everything was sold at a store. Maybe when they looked at Petra and Ellie, all they saw were the little girls with the neglectful parents who'd always fended for themselves, and they felt bad for the two of them. Whatever the reason, people got stuff from the two of them, and Petra sure as fucking hell wasn't complaining.

A few deals later, Petra abandoned Ellie in order for nobody to murder each other. It was for a good cause.

"Hey, you guys." She said, silently praying to Notch that everyone was going to survive this.

"Hey, Petra." Jesse said. It was obvious to Petra that Jesse was trying to act cool. It failed horribly.

"So...how's the build going?" It was the first thing that came to mind, and she didn't realize how stupid of a thing it was to say until after it was out of her mouth. _The competition hasn't even started!_ Petra mentally scoffed at herself.

Jesse looked at her team's plot. Then she turned back to Petra. Back at the plot, and back at Petra. "Does that empty plot look like a build to you?" She asked jokingly.

Petra forced a laugh. "No, I guess not." She admitted.

"Well, the competition may not have started, but the Order of the Pig's got a good plan." Jesse stated.

Petra was still and silent for a good five seconds before she said, "The Order of the... _what_?"

"Order of the Pig." Jesse repeated simply.

"Is your team called...Order of the...Pig?" Petra asked with a deadpan expression on her face.

"Yeah."

"But... _why?_ " That was all Petra knew how to say.

Jesse shrugged. "The Order's cool, and we have a pig." She gestured to Reuben, who was by her side.

"Okay..." Petra said, a little unsure.

"Hey, Petra." Lukas showed up, and suddenly her distaste of Jesse's team's name was forgotten. "I forgot to thank you and Ellie for that Nether Star on Friday. Tell her thanks."

"Hey, Lukas." Petra said a little awkwardly. "It's not a problem. Not like we were going to do much with it, anyway. We'd had the damn thing for over a year."

"You _helped_ these tools?" Axel looked surprised.

Petra shrugged nonchalantly. "We'll help anyone so long as they offer a decent price. Ever need anything, well, our door is always open for business." She started making her way back into the forest. She'd distracted the groups from each other. Her mission was accomplished.

"But we don't know where to find the door!" Olivia called after her.

"Exactly." Petra supposed it probably seemed strange to other people that nobody knew where she and Ellie lived except for her and Ellie themselves, but neither of them cared.

Petra could faintly hear Lukas talking behind her, but it was a fucking mystery to her what he might be saying. "Hey, Ellie? You there?" Petra called once she was back in the woods.

"Yeah, I'm there. Or maybe I'm here. I'm somewhere near."

"Ellie, seriously."

"Okay, fine." Ellie emerged from a cluster of trees. "Well, while you were abandoning m-"

"It was for a good cause. They would've murdered each other."

"Fine. While you were keeping your friends from murdering each other, I did a few of the less complicated deals. The list is still pretty long-strange how many people ask us for things, especially considering this town's population-but hey, more deals means more money." Ellie shrugged.

"Yeah. But just for the record, we're not friends. Aside from Lukas, the Ocelots are total bitches, and even if they aren't bitchy to me specifically, they're still bitchy, so I don't care about them. As for Jesse's group…well, yeah. You've met them."

"I'm a bitch, and you care about me." Ellie pointed out.

"We don't have much of a choice but to care about each other. I mean, we could hate each other, but that would suck because we live together."

And so continued the process of getting stuff for deals. It was starting to get dark outside when a familiar scream rang through the air.

Ellie looked startled. "You heard that too, right?"

"If you mean the sound of Jesse making ears bleed, damn right I heard that."

"Alright, it's night and Jesse sucks at fighting. I'm guessing she got assaulted by monsters." Ellie guessed. She paused, thinking. "Huh. Why wouldn't she be at Endercon?"

"I don't know! Does it really matter?" Petra scoffed. "Even if it isn't Jesse, _someone_ is screaming, and people don't scream like that for no reason." The next course of action for them was to run in the direction of the scream. After a few minutes, they found Jesse, pinned to the ground by a spider with no sword.

She and Ellie intervened, and seconds later the mobs were dead.

"Where the fuck did you two come from?!" Jesse demanded.

"Not important." Ellie responded.

"Just come on. We need to get out of the open." Petra said simply.

Ellie and Petra led Jesse to their cave. "Do you two _live_ here?" Jesse asked incredulously.

"Define living." Ellie said. "We survive here, more like."

Petra punched her older sister playfully. "Ignore her. She's crazy. We live here."

"Damn. I'm in the home of Petra and Ellie Johnson. This is a major accomplishment."

"Yeah, whatever." Petra rolled her eyes.

"Seriously, though, where did you come from before? Are you two just, like, everywhere?"

"Yep. We're magical." Petra joked.

"Alright, now you ignore _her._ She's the crazy one. She's pinning the blame for being crazy on me so nobody knows."

"I'm not ignoring either of you. I just want to fucking get to Endercon."

 _Skull?_ Petra mouthed to Ellie. For some reason, she had the idea to show Jesse the skull. It was beyond her why it had even crossed her mind, but it had.

Ellie shrugged. _I guess, but secret._ The message was clear. Swear her to secrecy.

"Well, there's something we'd like to show you first."

"Fine." The three girls entered the cave. "Look, this is a really cool dimly-lit tunnel, don't get me wrong, but this thing you guys want to show me isn't too far away, right?" Jesse appeared to be a little scared, despite her efforts to hide it.

"Jeb, Jesse, it's not _that_ dark. Are you _trying_ to get a reputation as a wimp?"

"My Notch, you two, this isn't my first time in a cave, you know."

"No? Is it your second?" Ellie quipped.

Jesse rolled her eyes. "That's my private business."

"So basically, it _is_ your second." Ellie said.

"Still my private business here!"

"Ellie, you're torturing her." Petra cut in. "Well, in any case, have you ever seen a wither skull?" She took it out of the endless pocket everyone had because screw physics and everything they had ever learned in science class.

Jesse's eyes widened, and she leaned forward slightly, as if seeing it from where she was wasn't enough to confirm that this was real. "Holy crap!" She exclaimed.

"Fresh from the Nether."

Jesse was awestruck. Ellie said, "You're the first person aside from us to see it. You'd better be grateful."

"You two risked your notchdamn _lives_ for that dusty old skull?"

"No." Ellie scoffed. "Of course we didn't. Why would we do that?"

"We risked our lives for the thing we're going to _exchange_ for that dusty old skull." Petra continued.

"Which would be…?"

"There's this guy we're going to meet up with at Endercon. He's going to trade us a diamond for it."

"So you never bothered to ask him about it? It seems just a little strange to me."

"And it would seem strange to him if we asked why he wanted something." Petra pointed out. "He already almost turned us away because I'm, in his words, a _child_. We don't need to push our luck by asking him about why he wants what he wants. We don't ask. We just deliver."

"You wouldn't need to be weird about it. You could just be all, 'Hey, what's with your totally normal and not at all weird skull thing?'"

"Jesse, have you ever stopped to consider that maybe there's a reason nobody ever takes your advice?" Ellie said dryly.

"No, not really. Should I?"

"Yeah. Yeah, you should."

"Fine, I guess I'll I'll consider it. In any case, _wow._ "

"Uh…sorry for telling the truth, I guess?" Ellie muttered.

"No, not that. Wow that in a single day, you two went to the Nether and killed a fucking _Wither Skeleton_ …I mean, I _did_ help my friends build a damn cool statue, but I guess it's pretty sweet being you guys, right?"

The last part of Jesse's sentence seemed to cause something to snap in Petra. " _Sweet?_ " She snapped, practically spitting out the word, as if merely having it in her mind without it being said left a bad taste in her mouth. "You know what, Jesse?" Rage filled her. "If you think it's so sweet being us, why don't you spend seven years fending for yourself because your parents are only letting you live with them for fucking _money_ , and then see if you still think it's sweet being us?" Petra clenched her teeth.

Jesse started to say something, but didn't bother. Well, great, Petra had just fucked things up. Social interactions had never been her forte. Eleven years in an orphanage with your only interactions with the outside world being sitting and looking pretty when people came could do that to someone.

Oh, fuck it. "Look, if you want to, you could come with us. To the deal."

Ellie had an I-don't-know-what-the-hell-you're-doing-but-I'll-roll-with-it expression on her face, which was understandable. "That is, if you aren't a chicken."

Jesse rolled her eyes, Petra's outburst seemingly having been forgotten by her. "I'm not Marty McFly. Calling me chicken won't get me to do something." Petra looked at her blankly. "Marty McFly? Back to the Future? Any of that ringing a bell?"

Oh. Back to the Future. That series of movies that everyone except her and Ellie seemed to have watched. "Right. That. Anyway, it might seem pretty damn scary, but it's just an offer."

"Are you kidding?" Jesse looked like it was Christmas, her birthday, and the last day of school rolled into one. "I'd _love_ to come."

"Okay, cool." Petra said. "Just try to keep quiet."

"Why?"

"Because this is a fucking diamond on the line. The last thing we need is someone fucking this up." Ellie stated bluntly.

"Okay, then." Jesse looked a little weirded out. The two of them had that effect on people sometimes, especially people like Jesse.

They came to a crafting table and chest. "You two just keep a crafting table down here?"

"Yeah. It comes in pretty damn handy. Anyways, I'm assuming that wooden sword of yours got busted, since you didn't seem to have it and being attacked by monsters calls for swords." Petra decided to shut her mouth before she started rambling.

"You're right about that." Jesse nodded. "You're giving me a new one?"

"Fuck that. Here's something better-you can make your own. Just grab anything you need in the chest. I'm assuming you know what the recipe is." Petra hoped she did, anyway. It was typically common knowledge, but knowing Jesse, it was all too possible that she didn't.

"You confuse me." Ellie muttered so only Petra could hear.

"And you confuse me. I guess we're even."

"Are you sure we're even related?"

"Who knows?"

Jesse interrupted the little bit of banter. "Do you guys own all this?"

"No." Petra said, rolling her eyes. "We're just stealing from whoever the hell was dumb enough to leave it there. And yes, someone else was dumb enough to leave their stuff in a cave inhabited by someone else."

"Yeah, we're thieves." Ellie said sarcastically. "You've know us for seven years and you somehow haven't managed to figure it out, but yeah. We're thieves."

"Of _course_ we own it!" Petra scoffed.

"Okay, point taken. Jeb, I was just making sure. Oh! Here we go. Jackpot." Jesse pulled out the pieces she needed and placed them on the table, making a sword.

"See, isn't it better when you make it yourself?" Petra asked.

"No, not really." Jesse deadpanned.

"Well, okay then. Anyway, let's go."

They left the cave and started walking across the bridge. It had been there when they'd first moved into their cave, and it didn't appear to be leaving anytime soon. Petra and Ellie theorized that the cave had been used for mining, and that the bridge had been for quick travel.

"Check it out." Petra commented. "Endercon's all lit up." There was a beacon shifting colors.

"Aw, dammit." Jesse said. "Looks like Lukas and those Ocelots won again."

"Sorry, Jesse. You have to admit, though-that beacon looks pretty fucking great."

"Yeah, yeah." Jesse didn't acknowledge that Petra was right-it looked awesome. "I just wanted this to be the year we finally beat those assholes. Especially since Endercon's being held in our town this year. It was like our year, you know?" Jesse sighed.

"I get what you mean." Petra said. "I can't help but wonder why they're holding Endercon in our tiny and pathetic excuse for a town this year, though. I mean, you can barely even call it a town."

"I don't know, but I'm not complaining." Jesse replied. "I mean, it's always in the general area, so it's never too hard to get there, but it's nice to have it, like, five minutes away from the door. Definitely an improvement."

"Wait, before, did you call Lukas an asshole?" Ellie asked.

"Yeah, I guess so." Jesse shrugged.

"Okay, um, Petra might want to push you off this bridge now."

"Ellie, stop."

"Oh, are you referring to her blatantly obvious crush on him? If that's the case, then yeah."

"What the hell are you two going on about?"

Ellie and Jesse exchanged glances, like they'd been best friends for years and Petra was the newcomer. "Like I said, your blatantly obvious crush on Lukas." Jesse said, giggling. Well, she was fucked.

"You're crazy." Petra did her best to deny it, but the heat in her face made it obvious that she was failing. "I don't like him as anything more than a friend."

"Alright, let's try this again." Ellie said, snapping me out of my random bullshit thoughts. "This time, be honest. Like Jesse said, your blatantly obvious crush on Lukas."

"Why are you two ganging up on me?"

"Because we can, and because eventually you'll admit it."

Petra sighed. She knew that, as much as she tried to hide it, anyone who looked closely enough could see the truth-that she liked Lukas a lot, and not just as a friend. Who wouldn't? He was handsome, a great person...aside from his being a bit arrogant, Petra couldn't find any major flaws about him. Back in sixth grade, he'd been the only one willing to talk to the antisocial redheaded girl who sat in the back of the classroom.

It hadn't been love at first sight. Petra knew all too well that no kind of love at first sight existed. She'd fallen in love pretty quickly, though.

But if there was one thing Petra wasn't, it was stupid. Not in school terms, but in life terms. She knew that she and Lukas would never be a thing. For one thing, if she had a dollar for every time he had called her his friend, she and Ellie wouldn't have to do deals just to scrape by. Second, he was way out of her league. He was attractive, she wasn't. He was a good person, she wasn't. He had a real future ahead of him, while her only future? It comsisted of spending the rest of her life doing deals with Ellie just to barely get enough money to survive. It was a future of calculating how much food and water they _really_ needed in order to function properly. A future of staying up all night to get the things they needed to trade.

It almost couldn't be considered a future.

But that wasn't the point. The point was that she and Lukas could never be more than friends.

But if Jesse and Ellie were just going to keep asking..."Jeb, fine. _Maybe_ I like him as a little more than a friend, but it's not like it matters."

"Success!" Jesse cheered.

"Congratu-fucking-lations." Petra scoffed. "You got me to confess. You had to gang up on me to do it, but you did it. Are you proud of yourself?"

"Very."

"That…was…rhetorical."

"You need to tell us these things."

"What, when a question is rhetorical or when I'm crushing on someone?"

"Just stop." Ellie said. "You two are ridiculous. Was I like this when I was your age?"

Petra shrugged. There was supposed to be a mother to answer questions like this, wasn't there? Petra supposed it was just another example of their fucked up life that they pretended wasn't half as fucked up as it really was for some reason.

"I don't know. Were you?" Petra wasn't sure whether nobody had ever taught Jesse that it was dumb to throw people's questions back at them, or if she'd been taught things like that but didn't care. She had a sneaking suspicion it was the latter.

The random and pointless banter could've continued for a ridiculous amount of time if they'd let it, but the three of them had an Endercon to get to. "Hey, remember what Endercon was like back before it became cool?" Petra asked.

"Damn right I do. Do you two remember what we were like before we were cool?"

"Wait, we're cool?" Ellie turned to Petra in mock surprise. "Petra, did you _know_ about this?"

"No! I can't believe it! I thought we'd never be cool!" The sarcasm was practically dripping from Petra's voice, but it was more humorous than mocking.

"Okay, point taken, ha ha." Jesse rolled her eyes. "Let's just go." They continued crossing the bridge. That is, until they were stopped by the one thing nobody anywhere on the planet of Minecraftia liked seeing. "Creepers!" They turned around to see zombies emerging from the cave. Petra couldn't help but wonder why there were monsters, considering she and Ellie slept in there every night, and they'd lit up every inch of the cave pretty well, but there was no time to consider things like that at that moment. "Crap."

Ellie didn't waste any time. "We have to jump!"

"We can't jump!" Jesse exclaimed. "Are you fucking insane?"

"Of course we are." Those were the last words Petra said before she shoved Jesse off the bridge. The next course of action was for her and Ellie to immediately jump off.


	2. Getting Scammed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The deal is made, but it doesn't go as planned.

"Alright, first off, why does it burn so much?" Jesse sputtered, brushing her dripping black hair out of her eyes. "Second, what the hell was that? You could've gotten me killed just then!" It was obvious to Petra that she was pissed. Of course, the Jesse version of pissed was different from the typical version of pissed.

"First, it burns because you landed on the water and not in it." Petra scoffed. "Second: How? You can swim. At least, I would imagine you can." Petra didn't have much faith in Jesse, but she hoped the girl could at least swim. She was seventeen, for Notch's sake! Besides, Jesse didn't seem to be having any problem staying afloat at the moment.

"Well, what if I hit the water too hard and died?" Jesse pointed out. Too bad her point wasn't valid.

"I…don't think that's possible. Water breaks your fall, no matter what height you fall from or how hard you fall." Petra reminded her.

"Oh, yeah, you're right." Jesse remembered. "Well, what if the river was frozen?"

If Petra hadn't needed all four of her limbs to tread water, she would've facepalmed. "It's July." She deadpanned. "It felt like a hundred fucking degrees earlier-there's no way in hell that it would go from being that to it being cold enough for the river to freeze in less than a day. You weren't going to die. I'm sorry we scared you, but those mobs would've fucking killed us all if we hadn't jumped."

"Can you at least give me some warning next time?" Jesse asked.

"No, we can't."

Jesse had nothing to say to that. "Alright, you two, stop it." Ellie said, looking a little annoyed with their conversation. "We should get moving, anyway. Jesse, try to land in the water and not on top of it next time."

After some swimming, the three girls came to land. The worst part of swimming is always getting out and being all wet, and it didn't help that they were in their regular clothes. They wrung out their dripping wet hair and headed in the direction of Endercon. "Hey, guys?" Jesse asked.

"Yeah?" Petra replied.

"So, this is all hypothetical, but-"

"No, it's not." Ellie interrupted. "I don't know what you're about to ask, but it's not hypothetical. It never is."

"Oh my fucking Notch." Jesse muttered. "Okay, it's not hypothetical. Aiden sabotaged our build during the competition, and I was wondering if I should turn him in. Maybe he and the Ocelots will be disqualified."

Petra thought for a moment before she answered, "Well, in a perfect world, that would get the Ocelots disqualified. But this isn't a perfect world, and a lot of people like the Ocelots." It was sad, but true. "So no, they won't be disqualified. With no proof backing either of you up, people will default to believing Aiden, and you'd just wind up looking like a sore loser. Let's face it: Chances are, someone saw Aiden sabotaging your build but they didn't give a shit. People like the Ocelots, and they don't like you and your friends. I'm sorry, but it's true."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Jesse sighed. "And don't worry. I'm not _that_ stupid-I know who likes and doesn't like me."

The rest of their walk was pretty much silent. By the time the three of them made to to Endercon, they were dry, and night had completely set in. "Hey, could you guys let me know if you see Reuben anywhere? I told him to run when we were attacked. It was for his own good, but now I don't know where he is."

"Of course." Ellie said, and Petra nodded.

Axel and Olivia were waiting by the entrance to Endercon. "Jesse." Axel said, not acknowledging Petra or Ellie's existence.

"And…Petra? And Ellie?" Olivia looked confused.

"Hey, you two both know Petra and Ellie…" Jesse paused as she tried to figure out what to say. "...my new super-close friends. We're all super-close now."

Petra and Ellie simultaneously facepalmed. "No, we aren't. Petra and I just saved her sorry ass in the forest."

"Yeah…" Jesse shrugged. "We ran into each other while I was looking for Reuben."

"Couldn't find him either, huh?" Axel said. Petra raised an eyebrow. Had Jesse had both of them looking for Reuben with her?

"I'm sorry, Jesse. We looked everywhere!" Olivia apologized.

"I found him, but then we got attacked by mobs and I told him to run for his own safety." Jesse sighed. "He'll show up soon, I'm sure."

"I gotta admit, I'm pretty bummed that they won…again." Axel said, gesturing to the beacon.

"Come on, guys, no need to be so damn upset. We'll get them next year!" Jesse encouraged her friends.

"I don't know, Jesse." Olivia responded.

"The spirit is willing, but the flesh is sad." It seemed to Petra like Axel was referencing something, but what did she know about references and whether or not someone was making one?

"Hey, if at first you don't succeed, then, uh, succeed later than originally planned." It was a wonder to Petra that anyone was willing to even look at her.

"That's not the saying." Ellie deadpanned.

Petra sighed. "Yeah, I know. No need to highlight my moments of stupidity. Anyways, Jesse, Ellie, I think we should go see about that thing." The thing. Petra mentally facepalmed at herself and her spectacular failure at being subtle.

"Oh, right. The 'thing'." Well, at least she wasn't as obvious as Jesse. Ellie drew a finger across her throat. Petra made a mental note to stop Ellie from murdering Jesse later.

"Subtle." Olivia said, the sarcasm blatantly obvious.

"Yeah?" Jesse didn't pick up on it, though.

"As a punch to the face. Axel and I were going to head into Endercon anyway. See you in there?"

"I heard someone saying there's free cake by the map booth." Axel said before leaving with Olivia.

"Cake? I want cake. Can we get cake after this?" Jesse asked once they were gone.

Petra rolled her eyes, putting her hands on her hips. "Once this deal is made, you're free to do whatever the hell you want."

"Are we going or not? That skull isn't trading itself." Ellie said impatiently.

"Patience, Ellie. It's a virtue. But yeah, we should go. We're supposed to meet over there, in the alley." Petra gestured to said alley.

"Dark. Dark. Verrrrry dark in here." Jesse said once they were in the alley.

"Huh. That's weird." Petra muttered.

"What? Am I supposed to like the dark?"

"No, not that. We were told to meet in the dark, creepy alley close to the gates, but he's not here. Think maybe he's late?"

"That's possible." Ellie said at the exact time that Jesse asked, "Are you sure _this_ is the dark, creepy alley he meant?"

"Well, we _were_. It's possible that we heard him wrong." Petra said, more to herself than to Jesse. "Then again, we've been doing this for years and neither of us have ever gotten a meet up spot wrong before. Of course, there's a first time for everything…okay. New plan. You and Ellie stay here in case this _is_ the spot he meant. I'll look around for darker, creepier allies."

"Wait! You can't just leave me here!" Jesse exclaimed before Petra could leave.

"First off, you survived in the forest, so I would hope that you can survive in a dark alley. Second, Ellie's going to be here too. She can save your ass if necessary. It'll be fine." Petra assured her.

"Okay. But something about this feels off to me."

"Let me tell you something, Jesse: A lot of our deals feel off." Ellie broke in. "They always go perfectly fine. What makes this one any different?"

"Fine." Jesse grumbled.

"I'll be back before you two know it." Petra walked off, only realizing when it was too late that she still had the skull. Whatever.

Once Petra was out of the alley, she let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. She wasn't claustrophobic, but she supposed it was impossible to experience what she had in her life without having at least a dislike of small, dark spaces. Well, Ellie wasn't afraid of them, but she was _Ellie_. Stuff like that didn't apply to her. It never had.

A bit of searching later, Petra had found absolutely no allies that were dark or creepy enough to be the one Ivor had talked about. When she went back to the alley, Ivor was there. Of course. "Ivor!"

"Ah, here she is. I assume you have the skull."

"Yeah, sorry about that. Should've left it with them. In any case, I've got it."

" _If_ you have what you promised _us._ " Ellie and Petra exchanged glances. Petra was having serious regrets-maybe this hadn't been such a good idea.

"Neither of you said anything about _her_ ," Ivor gestured to Jesse, "when we first met. And I don't like surprises. Between this and the fact that one of you is only _seventeen_..." He glanced at Petra, who tried not to show how pissed she was, "Well, if these are the sorts of people you associate with, perhaps we should just call the whole thing off."

A long stream of swear words ran through Petra's mind. Ellie fired back, "Yeah? And where are you going to find another dealer here at Endercon who's willing to get you a wither skull by the end of the night? Nowhere, that's where. Also, just for the record, Petra might only be seventeen, but she's the best fighter I've ever seen."

"I suppose you're right." Ivor scowled. "I'm sure I've seen better fighters, though."

"That's not the point." Petra said. "Besides, my friend's fine. Right, Jesse? There's no problem here." Petra glared at her, as if to say, _You had better fucking be cool._

"Maybe we should rethink this whole thing. This guy gives me a really bad feeling." Jesse whispered.

Clenching her teeth, Petra hissed, "You think he gives you a bad feeling? If you ruin this for me and Ellie, we'll give you a bad feeling that makes the bad feeling Ivor gives you seem like the feeling you probably get on your birthday."

Jesse flinched. Turning to Ivor, she said, "Yeah, I'm cool."

"Proceed, then."

Petra took out the skull and handed it to Ivor. He examined it carefully from all angles, as if he was worried it might be fake. "I'll take that diamond now." Petra said.

"Take it. You've earned it." Ivor gestured to a chest near them. Jesse, Ellie and Petra looked at each other, shrugged, and opened the chest.

"Um, this isn't a diamond!" Jesse exclaimed.

"No shit! It's lapis!" Petra swore. They turned to where Ivor had been just a moment ago, and naturally, the motherfucker wasn't there anymore.

"Why the hell did you two trust that guy?"

"It doesn't matter now." Ellie answered. "We need to go after him."

The three girls ran off. "We are either getting that diamond, or we're getting the fucking skull back!" Petra said angrily.

"Or, you're going to make him pay, right? Right?" Petra had to wonder sometimes what it was that was wrong with Jesse.

Neither she nor Ellie responded. Once we left the alley and found ourselves back at Endercon, there was an unfortunate lack of Ivor. "We lost him!" Jesse stated the obvious yet again.

"Well, then we'll just have to find him again. Let's split up." Petra instructed. And they did. The searching all blended together, but there was a distinct lack of Ivor. Somehow, they all wound up as a group again with Olivia and Axel.

"You see him anywhere?" Petra asked, hurrying up to the group.

Jesse shook her head, saying, "No. I thought I saw him earlier, but it was just a false ala-wait! Holy crap, there he is!" The group turned to where Jesse was pointing and saw Ivor heading into the convention hall, where Gabriel would be doing his presentation later. Petra rolled her eyes. How very fucking convenient. "Looks like he's heading towards the Hall."

"We're going to have to get past that usher to follow him." Petra didn't know why she felt the need to say that, considering it was obvious, but she said it anyway.

"Let's go." They all headed up to the usher. "So, yeah, hey." Jesse made small talk.

Petra's attitude, on the other hand, was more of the 'Fuck it' variety. "What would it take to get us inside tonight?" The usher looked like the sort of guy who would let them all in for a date with one of them.

Unfortunately, looks can be deceiving. "Uh…tickets." He started laughing hysterically. "That was a good one." Petra rolled her eyes. No, it hadn't been. "You should laugh." Nope.

"Look, this is really important." Jesse said.

"Yeah, and so's my job." The usher responded, right before a chicken flew in front of him. "Chickeeeeeen! Chicken! Chicken! Chicken!" It flew away. "It's gone. You're totally fine. You're a totally cool dude."

They went back to their own little group. "We have to do something." Petra said in a low voice.

"Like what? The show has been sold out for ages." Olivia pointed out.

"I could bust right through." Axel suggested. "I just need a little wind-up room." Petra couldn't tell if he was serious or not. She seriously hoped he wasn't.

Ellie shook her head, putting an end to that idea, if it had ever really been an idea. "We'd get banned from Endercon for fucking life."

"We need a distraction." Jesse said, seeming to think aloud.

"A lot of chickens running around might be a distraction." Petra suggested. They looked over at the usher, who was currently in an 'argument' with a chicken. "Shoo! Shoo! Get out of here!" Out of all the things to be afraid of, this guy was scared of chickens. Fucking _chickens._ Petra didn't know whether to laugh or send him to a mental hospital.

"The usher is afraid of chickens." Jesse whispered. That seemed pretty obvious to Petra, but she decided not to say anything. They had bigger things to worry about. "What would you say if I told you I want to break _this_ guy's chicken machine," She gestured to the convenient chicken machine next to them, "to create the mother of all distractions?"

"I'd say you're a fucking genius." Ellie responded.

"But you'd have to break that pane of glass to reach it. How are you going to do that?" Olivia asked.

"Let's figure it out." Jesse answered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Get ready. All hell is going to break loose next chapter.


End file.
